The widgets I use don't open anything up. My music app allows me to pause, skip or back on songs. My Podcast app allows me to skip 30 seconds or pause play etc. I can click to discover a song quickly. My ESPN score app lets me quickly see the scores of my teams that are playing.

The Google Note allows me to quickly read my notes, Google Now to quickly see time to home, News, and other things I may be interested in.

The widget allows you access to basic functionality to your apps without opening them.

The widgets I use don't open anything up. My music app allows me to pause, skip or back on songs. My Podcast app allows me to skip 30 seconds or pause play etc. I can click to discover a song quickly. My ESPN score app lets me quickly see the scores of my teams that are playing.

The Google Note allows me to quickly read my notes, Google Now to quickly see time to home, News, and other things I may be interested in.

The widget allows you access to basic functionality to your apps without opening them.

I have the same for the iPhone. It just sends you notifications. Like my espn app just sends me notifications anytime a major story breaks out. My music is integrated in the phone I can pause skip play music even when the screen is locked.

Basically there's an app for everything. Even a lot of the functions that androiders claim they have that we don't, I can simply go to the app store and download an app to have the same function.